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I would love if advances in material technologies would allow to design a window glass-like material that would let outside air in, but would cancel exterior sounds.

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That would be nice. The next best thing is probably a regular (shut) window with an ERV/HRV somewhere.

Isn't that just better all around? Though a regular shut window isn't actually all that good at blocking sound.

I have seen such a thing in an article, though I don't know how to find it. It was a window with a square grid of circular holes in it - air could flow through, but sound waves were dissipated.

This maybe https://www.ntu.edu.sg/eee/news-events/news/detail/-noise-ca...

That's active electronic noise cancellation - there have been many of those described and very few delivered over the past thirty years. Presumably because it's the sort of thing that is angle-sensitive and hard to set up and maintain.

The thing I saw was just a pane of glass or plastic with large round holes in it to attenuate/dissipate sound waves while allowing significant airflow.

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